Posted by BJ​As I’ve no doubt you’ll all immediately recognize, the title is the abbreviation* for the APMP Foundation Level Accreditation Preparation Workshop and Exam.

Now, upon seeing this, you might think this post will be about the dangers of using arcane abbreviations, jargon that the client isn’t familiar with, etc. within proposals (and I admit to being sorely tempted to do so and I reserve the right to come back to this topic in another post on another day). But that is not the intent of this topic; this post is intended to help clarify the objectives/goal of workshop.

I’m prompted to write this post based on the response I hear at the start of an APMPFLAPWE, “What is your objective in attending this workshop?”** At almost every workshop there are at least one or two participants who respond with, “I’m here to learn what I need to know to perform my job function as a proposal (manager, writer, specialist, etc.).” or some version of that statement.

I have to sigh a bit when I hear this from a participant because they obviously have not understood the purpose of the workshop.*** The objective of the workshop is to review the basics of proposal management, the material covered on the exam. A secondary objective is to provide guidance as to how best to approach the exam and answer the questions. The goal is to give participants who have the necessary understanding of proposal basics the highest probability to pass. The workshop is NOT and does not teach participants the basics of proposal management. It does not provide the exercises necessary for participants to practice, learn and gain efficiency with new skills and knowledge.**** The workshop is not training in the true sense of the word, it is a review of material the candidate for accreditation participant is expected to know.

*This is an abbreviation, not an acronym.

**At the workshop we do try to emulate proposal best practices. In this case, as I do at a proposal kick-off, I ask those involved their objective(s) for participating in the effort.

***We have attempted to make the objectives of the workshop clear within the workshop description, write-ups and even with the careful wording of the workshop title – preparing for the APMP Foundation Level exam.

****These ARE the objectives/goal of the many proposal workshops we present.